Spirited Away

Influences on the Film

Key Facts

Chihiro’s father reassures Chihiro with
these words early in the film, when the family explores the abandoned
theme park. Chihiro’s parents find a food stall and begin eating,
even though no one is present to give them permission, to serve
them, or to accept their payment for the food. Although Chihiro’s
father brazenly asserts that Chihiro shouldn’t worry, Chihiro follows
her own instincts and refuses the food. Her instincts, not her father,
keep her from being turned into a pig like her parents. Chihiro’s
father claims to be her protector, but his greed and thoughtlessness
suggest that Chihiro is perhaps even more adult than her parents
are. She will eventually save them, not the other way around.

Chihiro’s father’s pride in his credit cards and cash,
and his certainty that they can act as a kind of shield, foreshadows
the spirit world’s rampant greed. Chihiro’s father thinks wealth
can compensate for a lack of respect and good manners and that just
because he has the money his hungers should be instantly gratified.
Chihiro soon learns that money can’t solve every problem, and she
wisely chooses duty over gold while working in the bathhouse. Those
who give in to their greed are enslaved by it. In the end, both
the food and the gold fail to satisfy.

2.

Yubaba:
“You humans always make a mess of things. Like your parents who
gobbled up the food of the spirits like pigs. They got what they
deserved.”

Yubaba uses these words to insult Chihiro
when Chihiro asks for a job. Yubaba doesn’t have much respect for
the way humans have handled their world, and she doesn’t want them
messing up her well-run spirit world. This disdain permeates Spirited
Away as a whole, and an important theme in the movie is
how humans change the landscape of the natural world with their
arrogant interference and ignore the consequences. Like pigs, humans
gobble up what is in front of them without considering the effects
of their actions or acknowledging that the natural world might sometimes
be more important than humans themselves. Pollution, land misuse,
and unsightly abandoned buildings are just a few of the negative
consequences of irresponsible actions. When humans bring natural
or not-so-natural disasters upon themselves, they whine and complain. Yubaba
expects Chihiro to take this same position. She is counting on it,
in fact, because then she won’t have to give Chihiro a job. However,
Chihiro is different from her parents, and she stays focused on
her goal.

Yubaba’s words call into question what people do and do
not deserve. Chihiro’s father and mother are accustomed to taking things
as their due, and they pass this attitude on to Chihiro. However,
Chihiro now finds herself in a world where everything has to be earned
through hard work. The bitterness in Yubaba’s comment suggests that
not everyone gets what they deserve, or that people don’t always
deserve what they get. For example, Haku and the ancient river spirit
didn’t deserve to be displaced and polluted. The humans who displaced
and polluted them deserve to be punished, but they probably won’t
be. Chihiro’s well-off parents have always given her everything
she wants or needs, whether she deserves it or not. Only through
her work at the bathhouse does Chihiro learn the connection between
work, accomplishment, and reward. Eventually, Chihiro earns her
way out of her situation through a combination of hard work and
good character. Ultimately, she gets what she deserves.

3.

Haku:
“You still haven’t noticed that something precious to you has been
replaced.”

Haku says this to Yubaba after Chihiro
heals him and takes off for Zeniba’s with baby Boh. Yubaba doesn’t
realize Boh is missing because Zeniba has made Yubaba’s attendants,
three disembodied heads, look like Boh. Haku understands that greed
has blinded Yubaba to what she truly values, and his words suggest
that without this hint Yubaba will remain interminably oblivious
to what is missing. Though she usually smothers Boh with attention,
Yubaba is distracted by her work and doesn’t realize that Boh is
definitely not acting like himself. When Haku tells Yubaba that
something precious has been replaced, the first thing Yubaba looks
for is the pile of gold beside her on the table. Only when she sees
that the gold is safe does she understand he’s talking about another
precious thing, and when she refocuses her attention on Boh, she
discovers he isn’t Boh at all. A few seconds later, the gold turns
to dirt. Her greed has left her with nothing, and now, with no material
objects to protect or covet, she wants only her baby. Boh becomes
an important bargaining chip in obtaining Sen’s freedom, while Yubaba
learns a lesson about what really matters in the world.

Almost every major character in Spirited Away has
experienced replacement in some way. Shortly after this scene with
Yubaba, Sen remembers Haku’s real name, which is Haku’s own precious
thing that has been replaced. Sen’s memory of the Kohaku River reminds us
that humans constantly replace precious parts of nature with more
transient things. Haku’s true identity, Kohaku River, was replaced
by an apartment complex. The stink spirit replaced the ancient river
spirit because his river was polluted. Pigs replace Chihiro’s gluttonous
parents. Even Chihiro’s real name is replaced with the name Sen,
a smaller and presumably less important name. Ultimately, Chihiro
survives because she recognizes what is precious and tries to preserve
it.

4.

Chihiro:
“I knew you were good!”

Sen says this to Haku as they’re returning
to the bathhouse near the end of the movie. She has agonized about
Haku’s true motives and character since the moment she met him,
and she now remembers that he saved her from drowning when she was
very young. Suddenly, all of her decisions are justified, and her
doubts about her abilities disappear. She has trusted her instincts,
and her instincts have proved trustworthy. She has come into her
own. When Sen returns to the bathhouse and takes on Yubaba’s last
challenge, she completes her transformation from a hesitant little
girl to a self-confident young woman. She has no hesitation in her
voice when she answers Yubaba’s question. She trusts her instincts
once again and tells Yubaba that her parents are not among the pigs
before her, thus freeing herself and her parents from their slavery.

Throughout the movie, Sen has doubts about Haku, but she nonetheless
stands by him. Her loyalty reveals her understanding that a person’s
character is multi-layered and that appearances can be deceiving.
Although both Haku and Lin initially treat her gruffly, they quickly
become her biggest allies. While the rest of the bathhouse workers
seem to hold fast to the first impressions they have of their customers,
Sen treats everyone equally and finds out what’s beneath the surface.
The bathhouse workers try to scare away the Stink Spirit, but Sen
treats him as she would any other customer and discovers that he
isn’t as nasty as he appears to be. Sen gives people and spirits
a chance to prove their goodness even if that goodness is hidden,
and her acceptance helps to free her.

5.

Boh: “If
you make Sen cry, I won’t like you anymore.”

Boh says this to his mother, Yubaba,
when they return to the bathhouse. His impertinence is surprising,
since Yubaba has sheltered and pampered him for his entire life.
Boh learns much about the world when he is transformed into the
Boh-mouse. His more manageable size enables him to accompany Sen
on the greatest adventure of his life, and Sen shows him there is
more to life than mindless luxury. He observes how she rejects greed
for good deeds and sees how her devotion and honor affect those
around her. He finds joy in making something for a friend and participating
in the real world, as opposed to the virtual reality in which his
mother imprisons him. He eventually respects Sen so much that he
rejects his mother to help her, even though it means Sen will become
Chihiro again and leave him behind. While Chihiro’s parents may
not be the best role models for her, and Yubaba may not be a great
role model for Boh, Chihiro and Boh draw from their own wells of
good judgment and kindness to make the right choices.

Boh’s statement also reveals the transforming power of
loyalty and strong friendships in Spirited Away.
Throughout her ordeal, Chihiro never wavers in her loyalty to her
parents, but as she makes friends in the spirit world and becomes
committed to those friendships, her loyalties expand. She must make
fast decisions and figure out her priorities. As Sen, Chihiro ends
up risking her chance to save her parents by saving No-Face and
Haku with the herbal cake she received from the ancient river spirit.
In return, Kamaji sacrifices his long-treasured train tickets to
send Sen to see Zeniba. He does so because of the loyalty Sen shows
her friends, a loyalty Kamaji calls love. Sen’s loyalty inspires
loyalty in others, even in the spoiled, selfish Boh.

More Help

Although this page puts it that Chihiro and Haku share a purely platonic, brother/sister love, this is not true. For one thing, it just doesn't seem like it in the movie. For another, and more importantly, when the movie is played in Chinese, the boiler man (or Zeniba, I forget who) refers to Haku as Chihiro's 男朋友 which means boyfriend. So definitely, romantic relationship there.

When Chihiro and her parents exited the amusement park and entered their car, why was it filled with leaves and branches, just as if they left the car for several months in the woods? I also noticed that the vegetation had grown substantially. Maybe I am mistaken or time runs differently in the spirit world, any thoughts?